Mount Desert Select Board Advances RSU Referendum and Town Hall Contract

[0:00] Speaker A (unidentified): All right, I [0:02] Speaker B (unidentified): think we will get moving on to the rest of our meeting. Yes, I would like to open the public hearing opposed Warren article for November 3rd, 2026 special RSU consolidation referendum. Do you favor approving the school administrative reorganization plan prepared by the MDI RSS AOS 91 reorganization planning committee to reorganize Trenton, Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Tremont, Mount Desert, Swan's Island, Cranberry Isles, and French Borough into a regional school unit with an effective date of 7-1-2028? Ready [0:53] Speaker C (unidentified): for me to do a little presentation or [0:55] Speaker B (unidentified): answer any questions? Let me just answer questions. Yeah, it's sounding like crickets. [1:02] Speaker A (unidentified): The only person online is Carrie Jones. Oh, she was justice at the Harbor meeting where I was. [1:14] Speaker C (unidentified): I mean, we didn't do this a week ago with the Warren committee, and so that was sort of the suggestion was, I mean, we don't have to go through this again if you'd rather let us just ask the questions. I'm just about everyone in this room right now was at Warren committee. So yeah, okay. [1:34] Speaker B (unidentified): We'll take a motion to close the public hearing. So moved, second, all in favor. [1:42] Speaker D (unidentified): Thank you, David. Did you both? Hi. [1:50] Speaker A (unidentified): Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thanks for coming. Like, yeah, okay, second. [2:07] Speaker B (unidentified): Item you [2:11] Speaker C (unidentified): open the public hearing right? Yes, second public hearing on [2:15] Speaker B (unidentified): amendments to the general question order. Yeah, second public hearing on amendments to the general assistance ordinance appendix, appendices A through H. [2:38] Speaker C (unidentified): What's that? We could be responsible for bearing? Yes, that actually came up two days ago. Yeah. The only comment I'll make is that there aren't any significant changes to it, although some of the limits have changed a little more significantly than usual this time around. So there were some increases to the minimum, the maximums for hand-cut quality. The maximum amount that can be distributed is determined region by region. So the maximum changed, but the amount, the income requirements haven't particularly changed, but remains very stringent, you know. General assistance is intended to be very much if all else fails kind of a thing, right? [3:24] Speaker B (unidentified): I will take a motion to close this part of the public hearing. [3:27] Speaker E (unidentified): Can I ask one question, John? Go ahead, Alex. Were the increases as you described them, you know, not insignificant due to the rate of inflation, or why are the maybe more than in [3:43] Speaker C (unidentified): The past, I would presume that's what it is, but I don't necessarily have knowledge. Again, when these come to Claire and I from the state, it's pretty much here they are. Of course. Yeah, but I would presume that inflation had a piece to do with it, but yeah, it was it was [4:02] Speaker E (unidentified): more than usual. Yep. Okay. Thank you. A [4:11] Speaker B (unidentified): motion to close the hearing. [4:13] Speaker F (unidentified): So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. [4:19] Speaker B (unidentified): I will take a motion to adopt the amendments to the general assistance ordinance at appendices A through H. [4:26] Speaker C (unidentified): So moved. Second. All in favor? [4:30] Speaker A (unidentified): Aye. Good. [4:33] Speaker B (unidentified): I will accept a motion to approve the minutes of September 21, 2026. Move. All in favor? Okay. Appointments and resignations. Appoint ballot clerks under Title 30A, MRS Section 2528 for the November 3, 2026 Special Town Meeting. I'll move them. Second. Any discussion? [5:10] Speaker A (unidentified): All in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. [5:15] Speaker B (unidentified): Appointment of Heidi Smolich as warden for the November 3rd, 2026 general election. Move approval. Second. All in favor? Aye. Unfinished business. Oh, I'm sorry. We had no consent agenda. Unfinished business review and approved contract for town hall improvements. [5:45] Speaker C (unidentified): I'll comment on this. This is the end result of the discussion we had at the last meeting talking about going with DGC architects for the town hall renovations. This will be the contract for them to perform this actual work. And I'll reference something that I mentioned to a select board. I mean, there's going to be a lot of detail to this. This is definitely doing an infill to an already pretty complex town hall. And I'll throw out one of my favorite terms, courtesy of Frank Brown, it'll be a lot of high frig work, which was one of his terms, were very detailed work. And so my comments, unless there's [6:29] Speaker A (unidentified): other questions, I'm of approval. All in favor. Hi. Sign. [6:40] Speaker B (unidentified): Final warrant including recommendation votes are more committee. We'll do that at the end. I assume. [6:53] Speaker D (unidentified): Your business, but I guess that you're going to approve it. [7:00] Speaker F (unidentified): Move approval of the final warrant as presented. [7:05] Speaker B (unidentified): All in favor. You in business public space special event application 1-2 0 2 7 Seal Harbour Library Fair July 31st 2027 Seal Harbour Village Green. Move approval 7. All in favor. Aye. Consider accepting an unconditional gift to the Mount Desert Fire Department from Julia Merck and Hans Usch in the amount of $500 with [7:41] Speaker A (unidentified): acceptance with thanks. Second. All in favor. Thank you. [7:47] Speaker B (unidentified): Review and approval for contracting Coastal Energy for number two heating oil for the fiscal year 2027 heating season. Approval. All in favor. [7:59] Speaker D (unidentified): I think that was your second. Okay. [8:03] Speaker B (unidentified): Do you want to approve contracting with BFT Trucking for winter sand purchases for the fiscal year 2027? [8:11] Speaker A (unidentified): Move approval. Second. All in favor? Aye. [8:17] Speaker F (unidentified): We didn't do select board reports but I have one. Oh I'm sorry. You've been tucked up. Yeah. yeah okay what is your brian this is kind of for you about the babson creek the new bridge and the finalization of the kind of safety pieces of keeping people as roads get slippery as is there a date is there a i'm just it could be scary and someone going off there, and I'm just curious, it looks like there's a couple of areas. It would be very easy to go off that bridge and end up in the water. [8:59] Speaker G (unidentified): So, I haven't heard yet from the contractor about when they come back and do some work this fall. I don't know exactly what's on that list, but I could follow up and see. [9:08] Speaker F (unidentified): I would appreciate that just in light of recent events and making sure that 's safe before things get slippery. [9:15] Speaker C (unidentified): me isn't that a state road though you would do you have anything to do with it other than just [9:23] Speaker G (unidentified): well they get me informed of the project and we do have components in the project that are part of the town's infrastructure so there is a wastewater line that runs in that area yeah and there's a pump station that's adjacent to it so there were some control upgrades and a generator placement and then they had to put in a new line for the new bridge so we've been involved in that way and so we pay that portion of it of the project overall yeah and so i hear from them often enough yeah i know the people that are working on it and it might be nice to have a [9:56] Speaker F (unidentified): no parking sign i feel like that nice tart area by your little area has become quite a parking spot [10:05] Speaker G (unidentified): for people everybody except for the people that are supposed to be there correct yeah all right [10:11] Speaker F (unidentified): thank you i would appreciate just an update all [10:16] Speaker B (unidentified): right informational thank you letters from bar harbor food pantry eastern area agency on aging home hospice volunteers of hancock county mount desert nursing association and wic noise ordinance request harvard committee minutes from may 12 2026 our committee minutes from september 29 2026 and claire wolfeck towns clerk receives president's award from mtcca congratulations claire congratulations wonderful come back to the [10:50] Speaker C (unidentified): new year's events real quick absolutely yeah i was going to pull that one out i'll let y'all pull it out first then and i'll make a comment it's just going to say [10:59] Speaker A (unidentified): doesn't just happen in the summer no it doesn't yeah this seems like they're conflating [11:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Nuisance noise with construction noise, which is kind of in a different category. [11:14] Speaker C (unidentified): So the comment I guess I would make is that as much as last summer may have been a lot about traffic and parking, this summer was definitely the summer of noise complaints and people. This is about the third or fourth request for a noise ordinance that I received over the course of the summit. This is just the first one where she wanted to put it into the into the minutes. Every one of them is related to construction noise, every single complaint, and it's tricky because in the grand scheme of things. That tend to follow the law of unintended consequences. There's NORS ordinances, first and foremost, above all else, like NORS ordinances can quickly turn into something other than their intended use to neighbors who just start checking each other's decibel levels incessantly and coming back and forth after each other and stuff like that. But that being said, it's really been all about the construction noise, Seal Harbor in particular, but in some of the places in Northeast Harbor, blasting and requests for time limits on when those noises can occur. So the tricky thing, because again noise ordinances can run a run amok very fast if we're not careful with them, but I did want to mention this isn't the only one, it's been pretty regular series of comments on it over the summer. If a construction company is going. [12:45] Speaker F (unidentified): To actually blast, is there communication about that, or do they just do it? Essentially, yeah, go for it. Don't they have to like blow a horn and like aren't there rules and regulations about. [12:58] Speaker G (unidentified): Blasting? Yeah, I don't know the details of exactly how far the radius is for notifications of adjacent landowners, but there are requirements that they have having to do with not just the noise but also the potential damage that they're doing to someone's house that's relatively close to that blasting site. So I think there's some distance whereby, because I there was blasting adjacent to a house that I own just recently here in town where I was notified and there was there are signals that happen. And there's a lot of protocols that they have to follow in order to do that blasting appropriately safely, and ironing matters too, so they're pretty restricted really. [13:33] Speaker F (unidentified): Blasting is a little different than just general construction noise that's annoying, because it's. [13:38] Speaker C (unidentified): Loud, and yeah, and those are the two categories. It's, I think, the blasting. The reality is, I mean, no matter what, a person doesn't go through all those things, and no matter how much you hear the blast and how much you know it coming, and then it happens and your whole house shakes, it's always going to be upsetting no matter what. And I, a few of the calls that occurred in the spring, we're similar to that, like, yeah, I know it's coming, but it's really upsetting my elderly parents, kind of a stuff, and this is where noise ordinances can be tough with regard to the construction. I think one of the primary complaints, and this may be the one area we really want to think about it a little bit, is construction starting before 7am. If we were to pick one thing, maybe that would be the one thing that, you know, people being woken up to construction noise at 6 a.m. What I would be very hesitant about would be nighttime cats, music oriented caps, and things like that. Those, that's where things tend to get ugly sometimes. I thought a noise ordinance was somebody playing loud music after nine, ten o'clock at night. Yeah, most places that would be what it's for, and that's more, say for example, in Bar Harbor, it's designed around some of the businesses that go there and see Dave's [15:01] Speaker E (unidentified): got something. Dave, go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say, if noise ordinance isn't the solution, you know, do we find any concurrence or sympathy with what the complaint is about, not necessarily her recommended solution? I was very sympathetic to, you know, what our citizens are going through, and are there other measures outside of a noise ordinance that allow the town to have some say in setting some guidelines that make sense or common sense, short of a noise ordinance? Do, does the town have experience with this in past years, or do other towns have tools that we could look at. [15:47] Speaker C (unidentified): Good question, we'll research it. [15:49] Speaker B (unidentified): Didn't we try to pass a noise ordinance [15:51] Speaker A (unidentified): and restore it in the whole corridor? [15:53] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, it wasn't, it didn't work out. Yeah, we could certainly look into construction ordinances. [16:05] Speaker E (unidentified): Thanks, David. Or better understanding of common sense protocols. Again, the letter referenced, there is a best practice of letting neighbors know, and sometimes neighbors let other neighbors know, But it breaks down when the scale and the frequency increases. And that seems to be, we've reached a bit of a tipping point in terms of the old systems no longer doing what they were intended to do, as informal as they might have been. [16:33] Speaker C (unidentified): And certainly this summer, that tipping, that hot plate was Seal Harbor, whereas, say, in Northeast Harbor, it was the corner around Astakou last summer that was sort of getting to people this time around. It was courts. A little more recent, but yes, yeah. So, yeah, that's food for thought as we go into the winter and think through this. [17:00] Speaker F (unidentified): So, do we have to move this informational or just no,, we got it. [17:07] Speaker B (unidentified): Any general public comment. [17:10] Speaker D (unidentified): It didn't make it to the agenda, but on the next agenda for your approval, I want to talk about the February, how we change up usually the school break week and move it to the third party request the next week, because I'm going to be working on the budget schedule for everything. And so if I can get just sort of a, you think you're going to approve that, then I can work on the budget schedule before the next meeting. [17:36] Speaker F (unidentified): We already discussed that. Did we? Yeah. Does it have to be done every year? [17:42] Speaker D (unidentified): Well, that was going to be part of my suggestion was that instead of coming back every year that you make a policy that this particular. [17:56] Speaker F (unidentified): Okay, I thought we had done that, but maybe it was just annually. Yeah, it is. What is your excuse? So, February vacation week. Monday's a holiday. Tuesday would be our meeting. A lot of people are away that week. And so it's about moving that meeting to the following week on a regular basis. Yeah. Yeah. Just for attendance purposes. I think we've just covered that. [18:21] Speaker D (unidentified): But yeah okay well if we did my apologies and then I won't put it on the agenda and [18:28] Speaker H (unidentified): So yeah I want to sort of find out that Dawson came from last week's Warren committee meeting in the past we've always had the school board come twice do an informational thing remember it's the school board making the recommendation to the Warren the Warren committee would like to but so they don't have to come twice the Warren committee would like to invite the board to select them to our meeting versus them having to come twice and it'd be something you all can consider it on another night But I want to make sure that there's proper invite from the water committee versus happens making the school board come twice seeing this informational meeting be similar to last week where it was great to have you all in the room and you were all asked great questions let's see if we can streamline that to the people that are trying to make education support from you know our community anything [19:23] Speaker B (unidentified): Else all right, no other public comments. Let's move on to treasurer Lawrence town invoice AP 2723 in the amount of 671,143.68. [19:39] Speaker F (unidentified): Move approval and signature. Second. All in favor? [19:43] Speaker A (unidentified): Aye. [19:45] Speaker B (unidentified): Approval and signature, state fees and payroll benefits, AP 2720, AP 2721, and town payroll, PR something, in the amount of $356,682.59. [20:00] Speaker C (unidentified): Of signature? [20:02] Speaker G (unidentified): Second. All in favor? [20:05] Speaker F (unidentified): Aye. On abstention, please. [20:08] Speaker B (unidentified): Acknowledgement school payroll mdes PR07 voided disbursements v2704 and AP2722 for a net amount of 217,947.92 cents. Acknowledgement. Second. [20:30] Speaker A (unidentified): Good. All in favor? All in favor? Sorry. [20:37] Speaker B (unidentified): I will take a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye.